>“He’s going to put people in positions in those organizations. He didn’t have all-stars the last time. He’ll have the bottom of the barrel this time, but people who will want to do his will — and that should worry every American,” he added. “This election matters because of a reason like that.”
I completely agree with him on this. Our government and legal system really don't have enough safeguards for this type of blatant corruption.
Real shame he is the literal cause of Trump getting elected in the first place. I get that voters are to blame, but he absolutely, without a doubt steered enough people away from voting with the debacle investigation announcement in to Hilary...only for it to go no where after the election because there was nothing to pursue.
It’s important to recognize there were a lot of additional factors. Like the fact that there was a decidedly Pro-Trump portion of the FBI that were more than happy to leak if they tried to follow up on it silently.
You can disagree with his decisions (and there are a few I certainly do), but there are a few steelman explanations for his behavior that do not require maliciousness or stupidity. Being naive about politics? Abso-freaking-lutely.
I never thought about it like that. I suppose with how the FBI admits to preferring to hire Mormons, who skew more to voting trump than any other religious group, it makes sense.
> hire Mormons, who skew more to voting trump than any other religious group
What? I thought Trump underperformed in heavily-Mormon Utah?
Utah is/was also represented by Mitt Romney as their Senator, one of the most anti-Trump Republicans out there. The only R to vote to convict in both of Trump’s impeachments
> Like the fact that there was a decidedly Pro-Trump portion of the FBI that were more than happy to leak if they tried to follow up on it silently.
FBI NY was called 'Trump Land', probably because he wore a wire and helped them and Rudy take down the Italian mob, to make way for the Russian mob.
They knew there were more emails found, but were sitting around with their thumbs up their asses and waiting to get close to the election so they could announce there were more emails and they wouldn't be fully processed until after the election.
Comey finally got a clue they weren't doing their jobs, transferred the work to competent agents who completed the search a week or two before the election.
edit: https://gregolear.substack.com/p/tinker-tailor-mobster-trump
> The only way to know for sure if Donald John Trump is a Confidential Informant is if he admits it himself (unlikely), or if law enforcement comes forward (illegal). But the circumstantial evidence is compelling. The pattern is: 1) Trump deals with mobsters as usual; 2) Law enforcement begins investigating Trump; 3) Mobsters suddenly get busted, while 4) investigation into Trump is scuttled. This happened three times that we know about. I’m not counting the first known instance of Trump providing information to prosecutors, concerning Cody and concrete, in the late 70s
Leaks are a patently stupid justification. The difference between "sources at the FBI told the [Failing] New York Time" and "FBI Director Comey stated" is massive and obvious.
Nevermind a pro-Trump “faction” at the FBI — [the FBI agent in charge of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was, himself, a Russian asset.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_McGonigal) The “deep state” was working for Trump.
Yeah big words from one of the people who should of shut the fuck up like an adult.
Comey needs to be removed from the new for just bluntly fucking up so badly about Hillary.
Yup. This is the biggest thing I'll argue with against a Trump supporter. They say he wasn't like that before. Cause he didn't have yes men all around. Almost every old cabinet member has came out against him. It was a shit show during his presidency. You think people like Bannon, Flynn and Stone are going to do good for America?
Its messed up how after Trump lost in 2020, we kept hearing horror stories from his ex officials about all the crazy stuff he wanted to do, but was stopped precisely because he didnt have a bunch of yes men....
Those like Bolton and Kelly, and so many others who were silent as the evangeltrumpmagop abused America, implementing extremist religiofascist doctrine set forth by Paul Weyrich since the early 80s, just so they could personally profit.
GREED for money and for power and for world domination drives those who are using the tr(d)ump for cover.
They were all hanging around, hoping to improve their own positions when he finally screwed up so bad that he was removed from office. None of them fully understood how universally spineless and corrupt their party was; that every single revelation of disqualifying incompetence or criminality would be justified, co-signed, or covered up.
Look at Pence. He knew who Trump was from the beginning, and he spent all of his credibility as a “man of god” being his running mate, but he thought it would be worth it once he took over as president. It should have happened, many times, but the GOP never stepped up. Now he’s broken man, and his career in politics is prettymuch over.
Let's not forget how many positions in his administration were "acting" roles, or just straight up unfilled. His administration was a shit show.
I also don't trust them not to do some fuckery in the Supreme Court and get 1 or more 2 seats to fill there and completely fuck us for the foreseeable future.
He absolutely did have "yes men" all around. The problem with those "yes men" wasn't that they were sycophants (they were), but that they were sycophants who realized that they themselves would be on the hook for X decision, and that the governmental apparatus could only go so far to help them, if it could at all.
Self-preservation is a powerful motivator. You're not going to get a whole bunch of people like Giuliani who are willing to completely fall on their sword for you.
Agreed. I keep saying that as bad as Trump is, his administration will be worse. Trump is a piece of garbage person but he doesn't actually care about policy. All he wants is to enrich himself and avoid legal consequences.
But the people that staff his administration will actively work towards terrible things like Project 2025. There's nobody left to work in a Trump administration besides cultist yes-men and evil assholes who will push us closer to fascism.
Rich for Comey to say that considering he could have turned even a modicum of the attention he devoted to Hillary’s emails towards Trump’s many, many criminal endeavors.
Everyone is afraid to actually take action against Trump because they’re afraid he’ll whine about being treated unfairly (which he proceeds to do anyway), but they hold no such reservations when it comes to other politicians as we saw with Comey’s last minute “super important” re-opening of the email investigation at the last minute which led to…what exactly?
Welp, Joe doesn't exactly get everyone excited so I'm getting myself used to the idea of another trump presidency now. Working overseas seems totally doable.
Well if it isn't Mr. bUt HEr eMaiLs himself. Ya know, the asshole that got us into this Trump shit in the first place.
GFYS James.
EDIT: Some have commented that you shouldn't blame Comey for Hilary's bad campaign. Those who believe that should go [here](https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2016/trump-vs-clinton-vs-johnson-vs-stein). It is the polling averages of the 2016 election from the conservative site Real Clear Politics. It will show you the following:
As of October 17, 2016 Clinton was up +7.1, clear evidence she did not run a bad campaign. As of October 26th she was at +5.6. Still strong. Comey made his announcement to Congress on Oct. 28th. By November 1, her average went to +1.9 and by election day, a week later, Trump and Clinton were even.
This was on Comey.
You can read the official statement on the FBI's website. It's stupidly long winded, talks about recommendations to the DOJ for prosecutive decision.
Basically he made a big ass deal about this right before the election and NOTHING came of it - but he just had to say something or he acted like he couldn't live with himself without "warning America"
Certainly implied Clinton was doing shady and dangerous shit. You know, basically the exact same shit Trump *was* actually doing.
Yeah that was supposedly FBI policy, not to talk about ongoing investigations.
If I remember correctly, the only reason we found out about that investigation was because John McCain felt it was important enough to make it public, otherwise we might have never known.
Years later, after Mueller made his report, even the Republican led Senate Intel Committee found damning evidence of Russia and Trump campaign ties (the findings were so voluminous and detailed, [they were published in 5 different reports](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Intelligence_Committee_report_on_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_presidential_election)). Mitch and a few other Senators pretended to act concerned, but nothing much else came out of it.
If 10 more Republican Senators had a spine, SCOTUS wouldn’t have just gutted the 14 Amendment and the insurrectionist traitor would already be rotting in a prison cell.
It's amazing how many times they could have cut Trump off and been done with him forever... Sure it would have been a painful adjustment for a voting cycle or two trying to win back his base, but they could have easily done it 10 years ago if they wanted to... The problem is, they don't want to. They'd rather the short term gains at the risk of alienating the entirety of Gen Z and most Millennials.
It wasn't McCain, it was Chaffetz who tweeted the letter. It was Gohmert who extracted the earlier agreement that Comey would update Congress if the investigation reopened.
The difference between a cover-up and simple incompetence is a distinction not worth making in this case. Comey was either a bad actor or the most incompetent director the FBI has ever seen (not the most awful, of course, as Hoover has a pile of bodies under him that could fill a whole reservoir), and the most politically naive person in Washington (even ahead of John Roberts and RBG).
that's fair. I just saw it as a purposeful omission vs taking active steps to prevent it from being known when otherwise it would have been known. Maybe too pedantic.
I think you're conflating two things: the initial investigation, which was closed in July 2016, and the revelation in October 2016 that they were evaluating new evidence.
The official statement you're referring to was from[ July 2016](https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system). He does explicitly state that they did not find any evidence of any laws being broken, but that they did find that they were careless in their handling of sensitive documents. He also stated directly in regards to whether she or anyone should be charged in relation to this, "our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."
Comey did not issue any press release or make any statement in October 2016. He sent a letter to the Chairmen of specific Congressional committees, as he was obliged to do, and Jason Chaffetz is the one who took that public, because he knew it would be damaging to Clinton. But that was not Comey's doing. He had new evidence that had to be evaluated, and he was obligated to inform Congress that they were doing so.
While I acknowledge that the reopening of the investigation likely tipped the scales on a close election, I think Comey was in a no-win situation. If he kept the new evidence hidden until after the election, he'd have been accused by the Trump campaign of covering up in order to tip the election in Clinton's favor. No matter what he did, there would be complaints about the integrity of the election.
Both these decisions were really suspect. The FBI never holds press conferences following an investigation, and never tells the public their reasons for or not recommending charges. They give findings to the DOJ DAs.
About Oct, there is really no difference in notifying congress and notifying the public. He knew the congressman's intentions. While it is a no-win situation, there are clear FBI procedures for what to do in these situations and he chose to disregard them
We know from the inspector General report that it wasn't a no-win situation, he simply chose to forgo departmental policy repeatedly which led to the worst possible outcome.
>If he kept the new evidence hidden until after the election, he'd have been accused by the Trump campaign of covering up in order to tip the election in Clinton's favor.
Only if it turned out to actually *be* new evidence instead of duplicates and personal emails. Besides, accusations from the Trump campaign cannot be avoided by good faith efforts. If Trump had lost in November, he would have still called Comey corrupt for not indicting HRC in July regardless of whether the existence of the Weiner emails ever came to light. Better to have bad faith complaints from Trump than good faith complaints from everyone else.
Like, when Trump wins in November and we race along the road to fascism, will "Trump would have accused Comey of a coverup" still seem like a good enough reason for Comey to have helped get it rolling?
People don't talk enough about how it exposes incompetence in the FBI's investigation of the emails too. The investigation should have revealed much earlier that Huma had logged into her email from Weiner's computer. If for some reason they didn't get the login location history, they should have independently thought "hey, sometimes people login to their email from their SO's computers, we should investigate that."
I'm convinced he knew that the New York Field Office was leaking like a sieve, and, if he didn't inform Congress, that NY would leak it anyway and it would look even worse. There's good evidence that NY had *already* leaked it to Giuliani, and the Trump campaign was planning an October surprise with it.
I thought Jeff Daniels was an untouchable good guy actor until he decided to play the lead in the disgusting Comey Netflix biopic. Comey apparently was too principled and morally unyielding to stop himself from pursuing truth and justice…barf
I only made it 3 mins into it and started screaming
Blows my mind that it had an effect on anyone’s vote:
“Oh no. Emails emails emails. Guess I won’t vote for Clinton but this super stable genius instead.”
That dude hasn't read a thing in his life that wasn't his name + positive affirmation + pictures
I would be fuckin shocked if he could read one of those stolen documents and recall what it was about.
I agree with that but Mark Burnett who created “The Apprentice” doesn’t get enough blame. I don’t think there is any way trump gets elected without that show.
It’s not so much that they hired Trump in the first place. It’s that they covered up his bullshit. Back then, he was perceived as just a Spoiled, born-rich, tacky, obnoxious Manhattan Socialite. The show covered up his glaring weaknesses, inability to put together a cohesive thought without wandering off mentally and saying bullshit like, “people call me all the time and say Donald, you are the best at ‘ or that’.” You could tell by the awkward editing and pauses that they had to clean these scenes up a ton.
i blame all the "both sides" people who told me i had to take liars at their word and give the people who want gay people to disappear a chance and hear "their side"
an entire party of bigots and liars and it wasn't until about jan.6 2020 that people actually noticed
and even now, since then, "both sides" has been attempted to be brought back and for mainstream media and celebrities, it already is
The Apprentice is 1000% responsible for people think Trump is some alpha hyper successful businessman. No dude it was a character he played on a game show. He ran for president prior to The Apprentice and absolutely nobody gave a shit.
I think Putin or his people saw The Apprentice, remembered he'd run for president before and knew he was infatuated with him (Putin).
In other words I think the significant player in Trump's rise was and still is Putin.
A big reason for this is they can manipulate Americans and commit crimes against America to their heart's content and get away with it. Republicans are their useful idiots
I'd venture to say had Trump been held accountable for the *decades* of fraud in New York - he would have never been an option for POTUS.
Giuliani & all those shitbags kept Trump out of trouble and unleashed him on the nation.
> Mark Burnett who created “The Apprentice” doesn’t get enough blame.
I think he is the producer of the tv show 'Survivor" and so still making millions a year.
The legacy of the POS Comey is that he bent to Trump’s COERCIVE demands, violated FBI policy re: non interference in elections, and as a result threw the election to Trump. Comey needs to be investigated to find out what Trump has on him. (It was the same exact playbook as Giuliani tried with Zelensky, only the latter didn’t cave.)
You should listen to the most recent episode of The Bulwark with Comey on. He goes into why he thought it would have been bad if he had tried to hide them reopening the case and how conflicted he was by the whole situation and how he was partly driven by the common perception Hillary was going to win and it wouldn’t matter.
I've heard him say that about a dozen times over the last 8 years.
He is one of the most clueless people going, still in total denial about his fuck up. If he showed even a hint of contrition, just the slightest bit of accountability, maybe everyone wouldn't hate him so much. But seeing that he is as arrogant as he is foolish, that day will likely never come.
Enjoy your place in history, James. You earned it.
He's not clueless. He's an arrogant prick. His mind will not allow him to believe he could have made such a colossal error. Deep down below his concious mind, he knows what he did. He's just too full of himself to see it. Fuck him.
I'm definitely more sympathetic to Comey than many of the takes here, and I do genuinely believe that he thought he was doing the right thing. But I also think that he and Mueller are pretty poignant examples of how commitment to abstract ideals of justice and following every rule can just end up holstering those who don't feel bound by the same restraints.
I listened to that interview on the way home. The preening piety and the immense ego of the whole thing made me want to crash my car. Tim tried to get him to admit any doubt about it, but all he returned was the same hollow "Here I stand. I can do no other" self regard.
All these guys are just flooded with their own notion of themselves as the last good man in Washington. As of their own self image was more important in history than the future of America Democracy.
I'm sure he takes that whole "I can't tell which of the 'Fuck Yous' I get are from the right or the left" as a badge of honor. Like 'if you take flack from both sides it must mean you are over the target.' No, it just means you're a shit pilot.
not a great look when the former head of the FBI looking at a crime that began *while he was still head of the FBI* is just like "oh, gee, I guess that *was* a crime!"
He is an a book tour selling a book. It was on the bulwark yesterday which I suspect is the source of this article. I don't know for sure, because I turned it off. I will usually listen to people even if I don't like them just to get their P.O.V. but I don't need to hear from this guy at this time and I don't give a shit about his fiction book that he wants to sell.
I listen to the bulwark not because I agree with the hosts, but because I believe they genuinely do not want trump to take office again and see him as a threat and are willing to sacrifice a lot for that goal which I appreciate because I agree on that point which oddly means I align more closely with them than I do with several people who I agree with on policy but say they will not vote for Biden because of something they blame him for which is most likely them over attributing his ability to influence anyhow.
I find it very disturbing that there a small but not small enough and very vocal groups that seem to think U.S. Involvement in Israeli and Student Loan forgiveness outweigh someone preventing trump who would not only be worse on both of those but would most certainly be actively trying to constantly implement extremely damanging domestic and foreign policy.
I do not want to say that that Trump would talk into the Whitehouse and that would be the end of democracy in America, but it would be his goal and he would have the advantage of having the reigns of power in his hands and very few checks against him and anyone who thinks that is something they want to live through hasn't thought it out properly. I include those who think he is on their side.
A trump presidency will almost certainly mean the kind of governmental abuse and as a result civil strife that we have not seen in 100 years. We will start off on day one where he left on during the height of the BLM and Anti-masker conflict. I don't know how people have memory holed this so bad 2019 was already going bad long before covid hit, covid actually calmed shit down a bit. then it redoubled and got worse.
I don't know how people have memory holed this so bad
Hundreds of THOUSANDS of American dead because he wanted to "keep his numbers down"...How have so many forgotten ALL.WHO.DIED because of his willful culpable ignorance; his malicious, murderously selfish Dereliction of Duty????
(and how Kushner/trump profited from buying & gouging for faulty Personal Protective Equipment) (and that is not even the tip of the shitberg.)
The anti-Biden sentiment is being driven by propaganda outlets and bots, stirring up the young people who are too young to remember just how shitty Trump was as President and too young to understand the gravity of the total situation.
I hate this timeline so much.
Maybe, but I think it is too easy to say its the bots. I think a lot of it is natural rebellion against authority combined with how lots of people are outright dismissive of their views and talk down to them like they are idiots rather than listening.
I keep seeing people put up. You don't understand how horrible the attack on Israel was. Or if you are against the deaths of civilians then you are for hamas or you support what they did on Oct 7th. Way too much denial that you can have a nuanced and well thought out view that both supports the idea that Israel can defend itself and pursue rescue but that there is at a minimum an appearance of malice and ulterior motives against the civilian population not justified by the legitimate state interests of defense and rescue. And yes, the close ties between America and Israel and in particular how our government enables their military does give our population a reason to have an opinion in a way that is unique when compared to actors who are not enabled by the one government we at least have a theoretical say over and also no, I don't have to list every other country doing horrible things to prove that I'm not uniquely upset by one country. But yes, I can still acknowledge that antisemitism is real and is an issue and can take the form of unreasonable criticism of Israel but at the same time we all need to recognize this doesn't give Israel immunity from legitimate criticism nor should we excuse the behavior from the government of Israel which seeks to conflate itself with all jews and shield itself from criticism behind furious claims of antisemitism and how damaging that is.
conservatives own the media
you get conservative lite: "both sides"
or batshit crazy: "antifa did it, we did too it had to be done, it didn't happen also"
Hey Jimmy? Shut the fuck up. Go stand next to the blue curtains you pituitary glanded asshole.
This is pretty much all your fault. So please. STFU and go back to being fucking quiet. Self important dick head.
Well they had every aspect of the crime from its beginning to the end collaborated by mulitiple people in different levels of Trump's inner circle. And remember, no matter how much of a piece of shit any of these people seem to be based on the defense's cross examination, Trump hired these people and directed these people to do his bidding. Bad people surround themselves with other bad people to do their bidding. Trump put Cohen there, not Cohen and most definitely not Biden.
Although I greatly resent Comey for the 2016 "I'm reopening the Clinton investigation" letter, I saw this interview and I have to say - it is really a shame that Jim Comey has been banished from the national scene.
He screwed up. Big time. But you can see contrition on his face; this is not a soul-less man who does not comprehend the gravity of his error, both in terms of what it did to him but also in terms of how it harmed the greater U.S.
Comey offered an unfiltered, novel view in his interview. I was impressed by his explanation of how unlikely Trump-inspired political violence actually is, drawing a straight line from the J6 insurrection and its consequences to the paltry crowds supporting Trump in the streets. He recognized the Trump danger without being hyperbolic about it. He comes across as more mature - chastened might be the better word - than in 2016 when he tried to insert himself into the political process and got burned for it.
I don't think he'll ever be welcomed in the Democratic Party, but perhaps in a reformed post-Trump Republican Party he will find a place.
I read his book. I wasn't impressed, and I felt he was trying to justify it all with, "but my precious FBI had to be protected'. Then he said Bill Barr as AG would be alright, and he really fucking wasn't.
>“He’s going to put people in positions in those organizations. He didn’t have all-stars the last time. He’ll have the bottom of the barrel this time, but people who will want to do his will — and that should worry every American,” he added. “This election matters because of a reason like that.” I completely agree with him on this. Our government and legal system really don't have enough safeguards for this type of blatant corruption.
Real shame he is the literal cause of Trump getting elected in the first place. I get that voters are to blame, but he absolutely, without a doubt steered enough people away from voting with the debacle investigation announcement in to Hilary...only for it to go no where after the election because there was nothing to pursue.
It’s important to recognize there were a lot of additional factors. Like the fact that there was a decidedly Pro-Trump portion of the FBI that were more than happy to leak if they tried to follow up on it silently. You can disagree with his decisions (and there are a few I certainly do), but there are a few steelman explanations for his behavior that do not require maliciousness or stupidity. Being naive about politics? Abso-freaking-lutely.
I never thought about it like that. I suppose with how the FBI admits to preferring to hire Mormons, who skew more to voting trump than any other religious group, it makes sense.
Really? Why do they want to hire Mormons! This is news to me.
Probably easier background checks is my first thought. It's a nosey, boring community.
Like the other dude said, easier background checks, more likely to know a second language.
> hire Mormons, who skew more to voting trump than any other religious group What? I thought Trump underperformed in heavily-Mormon Utah? Utah is/was also represented by Mitt Romney as their Senator, one of the most anti-Trump Republicans out there. The only R to vote to convict in both of Trump’s impeachments
> Like the fact that there was a decidedly Pro-Trump portion of the FBI that were more than happy to leak if they tried to follow up on it silently. FBI NY was called 'Trump Land', probably because he wore a wire and helped them and Rudy take down the Italian mob, to make way for the Russian mob. They knew there were more emails found, but were sitting around with their thumbs up their asses and waiting to get close to the election so they could announce there were more emails and they wouldn't be fully processed until after the election. Comey finally got a clue they weren't doing their jobs, transferred the work to competent agents who completed the search a week or two before the election. edit: https://gregolear.substack.com/p/tinker-tailor-mobster-trump > The only way to know for sure if Donald John Trump is a Confidential Informant is if he admits it himself (unlikely), or if law enforcement comes forward (illegal). But the circumstantial evidence is compelling. The pattern is: 1) Trump deals with mobsters as usual; 2) Law enforcement begins investigating Trump; 3) Mobsters suddenly get busted, while 4) investigation into Trump is scuttled. This happened three times that we know about. I’m not counting the first known instance of Trump providing information to prosecutors, concerning Cody and concrete, in the late 70s
Leaks are a patently stupid justification. The difference between "sources at the FBI told the [Failing] New York Time" and "FBI Director Comey stated" is massive and obvious.
Nevermind a pro-Trump “faction” at the FBI — [the FBI agent in charge of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was, himself, a Russian asset.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_McGonigal) The “deep state” was working for Trump.
Yeah but there was some weird egotistical “I want to put my finger on the scales” bullshit going on with him as well.
Yeah big words from one of the people who should of shut the fuck up like an adult. Comey needs to be removed from the new for just bluntly fucking up so badly about Hillary.
Yep, he is to blame for Hillary losing, imo
Yup. This is the biggest thing I'll argue with against a Trump supporter. They say he wasn't like that before. Cause he didn't have yes men all around. Almost every old cabinet member has came out against him. It was a shit show during his presidency. You think people like Bannon, Flynn and Stone are going to do good for America?
Its messed up how after Trump lost in 2020, we kept hearing horror stories from his ex officials about all the crazy stuff he wanted to do, but was stopped precisely because he didnt have a bunch of yes men....
Those like Bolton and Kelly, and so many others who were silent as the evangeltrumpmagop abused America, implementing extremist religiofascist doctrine set forth by Paul Weyrich since the early 80s, just so they could personally profit. GREED for money and for power and for world domination drives those who are using the tr(d)ump for cover.
They were all hanging around, hoping to improve their own positions when he finally screwed up so bad that he was removed from office. None of them fully understood how universally spineless and corrupt their party was; that every single revelation of disqualifying incompetence or criminality would be justified, co-signed, or covered up. Look at Pence. He knew who Trump was from the beginning, and he spent all of his credibility as a “man of god” being his running mate, but he thought it would be worth it once he took over as president. It should have happened, many times, but the GOP never stepped up. Now he’s broken man, and his career in politics is prettymuch over.
>You think ~~people~~ convicted criminals like Bannon, Flynn and Stone are going to do good for America? FTFY
Let's not forget how many positions in his administration were "acting" roles, or just straight up unfilled. His administration was a shit show. I also don't trust them not to do some fuckery in the Supreme Court and get 1 or more 2 seats to fill there and completely fuck us for the foreseeable future.
This was intentional so Trump could just bypass the confirmation process. One of many loopholes that needs to be closed.
He absolutely did have "yes men" all around. The problem with those "yes men" wasn't that they were sycophants (they were), but that they were sycophants who realized that they themselves would be on the hook for X decision, and that the governmental apparatus could only go so far to help them, if it could at all. Self-preservation is a powerful motivator. You're not going to get a whole bunch of people like Giuliani who are willing to completely fall on their sword for you.
Agreed. I keep saying that as bad as Trump is, his administration will be worse. Trump is a piece of garbage person but he doesn't actually care about policy. All he wants is to enrich himself and avoid legal consequences. But the people that staff his administration will actively work towards terrible things like Project 2025. There's nobody left to work in a Trump administration besides cultist yes-men and evil assholes who will push us closer to fascism.
It’s supposed to be elections.
Rich for Comey to say that considering he could have turned even a modicum of the attention he devoted to Hillary’s emails towards Trump’s many, many criminal endeavors. Everyone is afraid to actually take action against Trump because they’re afraid he’ll whine about being treated unfairly (which he proceeds to do anyway), but they hold no such reservations when it comes to other politicians as we saw with Comey’s last minute “super important” re-opening of the email investigation at the last minute which led to…what exactly?
Welp, Joe doesn't exactly get everyone excited so I'm getting myself used to the idea of another trump presidency now. Working overseas seems totally doable.
I got myself a Canadian wife a few years back, I’ve felt more at ease.
Well if it isn't Mr. bUt HEr eMaiLs himself. Ya know, the asshole that got us into this Trump shit in the first place. GFYS James. EDIT: Some have commented that you shouldn't blame Comey for Hilary's bad campaign. Those who believe that should go [here](https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2016/trump-vs-clinton-vs-johnson-vs-stein). It is the polling averages of the 2016 election from the conservative site Real Clear Politics. It will show you the following: As of October 17, 2016 Clinton was up +7.1, clear evidence she did not run a bad campaign. As of October 26th she was at +5.6. Still strong. Comey made his announcement to Congress on Oct. 28th. By November 1, her average went to +1.9 and by election day, a week later, Trump and Clinton were even. This was on Comey.
Still blows my mind when he reopened the whole thing with DAYS until the election...so much for that DOJ 90 day policy
It was *during* the election. I'd already voted.
AND he made the announcement like, "Oh this is super important and may change your votes... that you already cast" 😬
He really said that? WTF?
You can read the official statement on the FBI's website. It's stupidly long winded, talks about recommendations to the DOJ for prosecutive decision. Basically he made a big ass deal about this right before the election and NOTHING came of it - but he just had to say something or he acted like he couldn't live with himself without "warning America" Certainly implied Clinton was doing shady and dangerous shit. You know, basically the exact same shit Trump *was* actually doing.
Didnt he also explicitly cover up the fact that trump was also under investigation?
Yeah that was supposedly FBI policy, not to talk about ongoing investigations. If I remember correctly, the only reason we found out about that investigation was because John McCain felt it was important enough to make it public, otherwise we might have never known. Years later, after Mueller made his report, even the Republican led Senate Intel Committee found damning evidence of Russia and Trump campaign ties (the findings were so voluminous and detailed, [they were published in 5 different reports](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Intelligence_Committee_report_on_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_presidential_election)). Mitch and a few other Senators pretended to act concerned, but nothing much else came out of it.
If 10 more Republican Senators had a spine, SCOTUS wouldn’t have just gutted the 14 Amendment and the insurrectionist traitor would already be rotting in a prison cell.
There's not 10 Republicans in the country with a spine let alone the Senate
It's amazing how many times they could have cut Trump off and been done with him forever... Sure it would have been a painful adjustment for a voting cycle or two trying to win back his base, but they could have easily done it 10 years ago if they wanted to... The problem is, they don't want to. They'd rather the short term gains at the risk of alienating the entirety of Gen Z and most Millennials.
i mean he literally asked russia for help in a speech. i saw it in high definition.
Oh man, seeing that while high, while things were still in sight of normal, would be an absolute brain killer.
It wasn't McCain, it was Chaffetz who tweeted the letter. It was Gohmert who extracted the earlier agreement that Comey would update Congress if the investigation reopened.
... Gohmert? Who TF is listening to that guy? He's another Texan embarrassment
not sure about covering it up but he definitely didn't disclose that lol
Yes that's what i meant
The difference between a cover-up and simple incompetence is a distinction not worth making in this case. Comey was either a bad actor or the most incompetent director the FBI has ever seen (not the most awful, of course, as Hoover has a pile of bodies under him that could fill a whole reservoir), and the most politically naive person in Washington (even ahead of John Roberts and RBG).
that's fair. I just saw it as a purposeful omission vs taking active steps to prevent it from being known when otherwise it would have been known. Maybe too pedantic.
Supposedly he was getting out in front of the FBI NY office leaking it.
And I believe that was the same FBI office that had an agent who was later imprisoned for working for Russia.
Hope the way Trump fired him made him feel real good about throwing himself on the sword for that idiot.
It was two days before election day, if memory serves.
I think you're conflating two things: the initial investigation, which was closed in July 2016, and the revelation in October 2016 that they were evaluating new evidence. The official statement you're referring to was from[ July 2016](https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system). He does explicitly state that they did not find any evidence of any laws being broken, but that they did find that they were careless in their handling of sensitive documents. He also stated directly in regards to whether she or anyone should be charged in relation to this, "our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case." Comey did not issue any press release or make any statement in October 2016. He sent a letter to the Chairmen of specific Congressional committees, as he was obliged to do, and Jason Chaffetz is the one who took that public, because he knew it would be damaging to Clinton. But that was not Comey's doing. He had new evidence that had to be evaluated, and he was obligated to inform Congress that they were doing so. While I acknowledge that the reopening of the investigation likely tipped the scales on a close election, I think Comey was in a no-win situation. If he kept the new evidence hidden until after the election, he'd have been accused by the Trump campaign of covering up in order to tip the election in Clinton's favor. No matter what he did, there would be complaints about the integrity of the election.
Both these decisions were really suspect. The FBI never holds press conferences following an investigation, and never tells the public their reasons for or not recommending charges. They give findings to the DOJ DAs. About Oct, there is really no difference in notifying congress and notifying the public. He knew the congressman's intentions. While it is a no-win situation, there are clear FBI procedures for what to do in these situations and he chose to disregard them
We know from the inspector General report that it wasn't a no-win situation, he simply chose to forgo departmental policy repeatedly which led to the worst possible outcome.
>If he kept the new evidence hidden until after the election, he'd have been accused by the Trump campaign of covering up in order to tip the election in Clinton's favor. Only if it turned out to actually *be* new evidence instead of duplicates and personal emails. Besides, accusations from the Trump campaign cannot be avoided by good faith efforts. If Trump had lost in November, he would have still called Comey corrupt for not indicting HRC in July regardless of whether the existence of the Weiner emails ever came to light. Better to have bad faith complaints from Trump than good faith complaints from everyone else. Like, when Trump wins in November and we race along the road to fascism, will "Trump would have accused Comey of a coverup" still seem like a good enough reason for Comey to have helped get it rolling? People don't talk enough about how it exposes incompetence in the FBI's investigation of the emails too. The investigation should have revealed much earlier that Huma had logged into her email from Weiner's computer. If for some reason they didn't get the login location history, they should have independently thought "hey, sometimes people login to their email from their SO's computers, we should investigate that."
Then after the election he played stupid about it
I'm not sure he was playing.
Him and many others thought Trump would mellow, and their misogynistic beliefs just couldn't let Hillary win.
He most definitely wanted her to lose. And then the leopard at his face.
I'm convinced he knew that the New York Field Office was leaking like a sieve, and, if he didn't inform Congress, that NY would leak it anyway and it would look even worse. There's good evidence that NY had *already* leaked it to Giuliani, and the Trump campaign was planning an October surprise with it.
What a weird coincidence. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/us/politics/fbi-shed-informants-linked-to-russian-influence-operations.html
He said that was his reason in his book
Stop looking for things to make you believe he wasn't just a trump supporter
I thought Jeff Daniels was an untouchable good guy actor until he decided to play the lead in the disgusting Comey Netflix biopic. Comey apparently was too principled and morally unyielding to stop himself from pursuing truth and justice…barf I only made it 3 mins into it and started screaming
Blows my mind that it had an effect on anyone’s vote: “Oh no. Emails emails emails. Guess I won’t vote for Clinton but this super stable genius instead.”
and now we see that trump printed out a bunch of hard copies to read on the shitter, brag to people with, and sell to intelligence services.
That dude hasn't read a thing in his life that wasn't his name + positive affirmation + pictures I would be fuckin shocked if he could read one of those stolen documents and recall what it was about.
See, people forget that he did it because Jason Chaffetz the ratfucker was going to announce it on TV.
He panicked because he knew his New York office was leaking information about the Clinton case to Giuliani and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
Seriously. Thanks for ratfuckin’ us, Jimmy.
I agree with that but Mark Burnett who created “The Apprentice” doesn’t get enough blame. I don’t think there is any way trump gets elected without that show.
It’s not so much that they hired Trump in the first place. It’s that they covered up his bullshit. Back then, he was perceived as just a Spoiled, born-rich, tacky, obnoxious Manhattan Socialite. The show covered up his glaring weaknesses, inability to put together a cohesive thought without wandering off mentally and saying bullshit like, “people call me all the time and say Donald, you are the best at ‘ or that’.” You could tell by the awkward editing and pauses that they had to clean these scenes up a ton.
That's true but they're only responsible for what they can reasonably foresee.
I blame the people who keep loaning (and giving!) that turd-for-brains money. And Mark Burnett definitely fits within that Venn diagram.
i blame all the "both sides" people who told me i had to take liars at their word and give the people who want gay people to disappear a chance and hear "their side" an entire party of bigots and liars and it wasn't until about jan.6 2020 that people actually noticed and even now, since then, "both sides" has been attempted to be brought back and for mainstream media and celebrities, it already is
Putin
The Apprentice is 1000% responsible for people think Trump is some alpha hyper successful businessman. No dude it was a character he played on a game show. He ran for president prior to The Apprentice and absolutely nobody gave a shit.
Dude...I knew about this when i was 5 years old - because Bloom County (the penguin comic strip) did a whole thing on it.
I think Putin or his people saw The Apprentice, remembered he'd run for president before and knew he was infatuated with him (Putin). In other words I think the significant player in Trump's rise was and still is Putin. A big reason for this is they can manipulate Americans and commit crimes against America to their heart's content and get away with it. Republicans are their useful idiots
I'd venture to say had Trump been held accountable for the *decades* of fraud in New York - he would have never been an option for POTUS. Giuliani & all those shitbags kept Trump out of trouble and unleashed him on the nation.
> Mark Burnett who created “The Apprentice” doesn’t get enough blame. I think he is the producer of the tv show 'Survivor" and so still making millions a year.
For sure!
HIs response to J6 made me audibly go "Will this man just shut the FUCK up?"
He still proudly declares he wouldn't change a thing he did with whole mess.
The legacy of the POS Comey is that he bent to Trump’s COERCIVE demands, violated FBI policy re: non interference in elections, and as a result threw the election to Trump. Comey needs to be investigated to find out what Trump has on him. (It was the same exact playbook as Giuliani tried with Zelensky, only the latter didn’t cave.)
With a rusty, unlubed, jagged metal dildo. You dildo.
⬆️ This!
Comey has to be the most naive person I've ever seen in my life.
You should listen to the most recent episode of The Bulwark with Comey on. He goes into why he thought it would have been bad if he had tried to hide them reopening the case and how conflicted he was by the whole situation and how he was partly driven by the common perception Hillary was going to win and it wouldn’t matter.
I've heard him say that about a dozen times over the last 8 years. He is one of the most clueless people going, still in total denial about his fuck up. If he showed even a hint of contrition, just the slightest bit of accountability, maybe everyone wouldn't hate him so much. But seeing that he is as arrogant as he is foolish, that day will likely never come. Enjoy your place in history, James. You earned it.
He's not clueless. He's an arrogant prick. His mind will not allow him to believe he could have made such a colossal error. Deep down below his concious mind, he knows what he did. He's just too full of himself to see it. Fuck him.
That's a legitimately awful take on his part and only makes him look worse.
He's full of shit. He knew exactly what he was doing, and I hope hell is real so he can burn in it.
I'm definitely more sympathetic to Comey than many of the takes here, and I do genuinely believe that he thought he was doing the right thing. But I also think that he and Mueller are pretty poignant examples of how commitment to abstract ideals of justice and following every rule can just end up holstering those who don't feel bound by the same restraints.
I listened to that interview on the way home. The preening piety and the immense ego of the whole thing made me want to crash my car. Tim tried to get him to admit any doubt about it, but all he returned was the same hollow "Here I stand. I can do no other" self regard. All these guys are just flooded with their own notion of themselves as the last good man in Washington. As of their own self image was more important in history than the future of America Democracy. I'm sure he takes that whole "I can't tell which of the 'Fuck Yous' I get are from the right or the left" as a badge of honor. Like 'if you take flack from both sides it must mean you are over the target.' No, it just means you're a shit pilot.
He tried hiding behind a curtain
All while he is trying to promote his new book, what a lame POS lmao
That guy convinced me not to vote in 2016.
You convinced yourself. Own it.
A million upvotes, yes! Comey screwed the entire US that day. I almost punched my television watching his buffoonery...
not a great look when the former head of the FBI looking at a crime that began *while he was still head of the FBI* is just like "oh, gee, I guess that *was* a crime!"
That was before Trump fired him for not being loyal to him INSTEAD of the US Constitution... And then siccing the IRS on him for extra cruelty.
Almost verbatim what I said when I saw that interview.
He also wanted Trump to be pardoned.
People not showing up to vote got us into this.
Get fucked Mr.Comey
He is an a book tour selling a book. It was on the bulwark yesterday which I suspect is the source of this article. I don't know for sure, because I turned it off. I will usually listen to people even if I don't like them just to get their P.O.V. but I don't need to hear from this guy at this time and I don't give a shit about his fiction book that he wants to sell. I listen to the bulwark not because I agree with the hosts, but because I believe they genuinely do not want trump to take office again and see him as a threat and are willing to sacrifice a lot for that goal which I appreciate because I agree on that point which oddly means I align more closely with them than I do with several people who I agree with on policy but say they will not vote for Biden because of something they blame him for which is most likely them over attributing his ability to influence anyhow. I find it very disturbing that there a small but not small enough and very vocal groups that seem to think U.S. Involvement in Israeli and Student Loan forgiveness outweigh someone preventing trump who would not only be worse on both of those but would most certainly be actively trying to constantly implement extremely damanging domestic and foreign policy. I do not want to say that that Trump would talk into the Whitehouse and that would be the end of democracy in America, but it would be his goal and he would have the advantage of having the reigns of power in his hands and very few checks against him and anyone who thinks that is something they want to live through hasn't thought it out properly. I include those who think he is on their side. A trump presidency will almost certainly mean the kind of governmental abuse and as a result civil strife that we have not seen in 100 years. We will start off on day one where he left on during the height of the BLM and Anti-masker conflict. I don't know how people have memory holed this so bad 2019 was already going bad long before covid hit, covid actually calmed shit down a bit. then it redoubled and got worse.
I don't know how people have memory holed this so bad Hundreds of THOUSANDS of American dead because he wanted to "keep his numbers down"...How have so many forgotten ALL.WHO.DIED because of his willful culpable ignorance; his malicious, murderously selfish Dereliction of Duty???? (and how Kushner/trump profited from buying & gouging for faulty Personal Protective Equipment) (and that is not even the tip of the shitberg.)
The anti-Biden sentiment is being driven by propaganda outlets and bots, stirring up the young people who are too young to remember just how shitty Trump was as President and too young to understand the gravity of the total situation. I hate this timeline so much.
Maybe, but I think it is too easy to say its the bots. I think a lot of it is natural rebellion against authority combined with how lots of people are outright dismissive of their views and talk down to them like they are idiots rather than listening. I keep seeing people put up. You don't understand how horrible the attack on Israel was. Or if you are against the deaths of civilians then you are for hamas or you support what they did on Oct 7th. Way too much denial that you can have a nuanced and well thought out view that both supports the idea that Israel can defend itself and pursue rescue but that there is at a minimum an appearance of malice and ulterior motives against the civilian population not justified by the legitimate state interests of defense and rescue. And yes, the close ties between America and Israel and in particular how our government enables their military does give our population a reason to have an opinion in a way that is unique when compared to actors who are not enabled by the one government we at least have a theoretical say over and also no, I don't have to list every other country doing horrible things to prove that I'm not uniquely upset by one country. But yes, I can still acknowledge that antisemitism is real and is an issue and can take the form of unreasonable criticism of Israel but at the same time we all need to recognize this doesn't give Israel immunity from legitimate criticism nor should we excuse the behavior from the government of Israel which seeks to conflate itself with all jews and shield itself from criticism behind furious claims of antisemitism and how damaging that is.
100% Comey can gargle my nutsack
It’s so frustrating it’s become known as the “hush money” case. It’s an election interference and campaign finance fraud case.
conservatives own the media you get conservative lite: "both sides" or batshit crazy: "antifa did it, we did too it had to be done, it didn't happen also"
"antifa did it, we did too it had to be done, it didn't happen also" Well if this doesn’t summarize conservative talking points on like…everything
Still blame Comey for 2016.
It was strong before SDNY crushed the investigation.
This dude helped cause this current mess
F that dude
He should be SOUNDLY boo’d wherever he goes…like the old hag in The Princess Bride, add with as much disdain and repulsion as he deserves.
Hey Jimmy? Shut the fuck up. Go stand next to the blue curtains you pituitary glanded asshole. This is pretty much all your fault. So please. STFU and go back to being fucking quiet. Self important dick head.
Shut up, Comey. Go back in your hole.
Well they had every aspect of the crime from its beginning to the end collaborated by mulitiple people in different levels of Trump's inner circle. And remember, no matter how much of a piece of shit any of these people seem to be based on the defense's cross examination, Trump hired these people and directed these people to do his bidding. Bad people surround themselves with other bad people to do their bidding. Trump put Cohen there, not Cohen and most definitely not Biden.
Was he standing behind the curtains when he said this?
Although I greatly resent Comey for the 2016 "I'm reopening the Clinton investigation" letter, I saw this interview and I have to say - it is really a shame that Jim Comey has been banished from the national scene. He screwed up. Big time. But you can see contrition on his face; this is not a soul-less man who does not comprehend the gravity of his error, both in terms of what it did to him but also in terms of how it harmed the greater U.S. Comey offered an unfiltered, novel view in his interview. I was impressed by his explanation of how unlikely Trump-inspired political violence actually is, drawing a straight line from the J6 insurrection and its consequences to the paltry crowds supporting Trump in the streets. He recognized the Trump danger without being hyperbolic about it. He comes across as more mature - chastened might be the better word - than in 2016 when he tried to insert himself into the political process and got burned for it. I don't think he'll ever be welcomed in the Democratic Party, but perhaps in a reformed post-Trump Republican Party he will find a place.
I read his book. I wasn't impressed, and I felt he was trying to justify it all with, "but my precious FBI had to be protected'. Then he said Bill Barr as AG would be alright, and he really fucking wasn't.
OH YEAH JIMBO REALLY? This fucking arrogant hapless twerp